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Notes for Laurel Nadine Beard: In high school, Laurel took Normal Training, a course of study which when completed allowed a person to teach in the country schools. To teach in the town school required two years of college. Laurel taught at least two years at Malaka #5 one-room country school north of Baxter and near Melbourne, Iowa. Because she was to be married, she finished her teaching assignment in the spring of 1934. She recommended Eleanor Howell, her Maid of Honor to take her place at the school, which she did beginning in the fall of that year. In May of 1934, Laurel married Howard Taft Maxell in her parent's home. Chauncey Akins and his wife Laurel Beard Maxwell Akins ran the meat locker in Mingo (next door to Jack's grocery store) from 1961-1971. It had wooden floors, and they covered them with sawdust to absorb liquids. The animals were brought in live to the back room, then shot with a hand revolver. Giant meat hooks carried the carcasses through the freezer and locker. People would bring in their stock to be butchered, then cut up. The staff would wrap the cuts of meat, label them, then store them in metal baskets for each customer in the freezer. The meat was wrapped in freezer paper, then labelled with a gummed tape...blue for beef and red for pork (I think, or maybe it was the other way around). The customers would come in to pick up packages of their meat whenever they needed it. Off of the back room, there was a side room with an enormous kettle. Meats trimmings would be placed in this and the heat would be turned up. One of my (Shelley Arri, grand daughter of Laurel Akins) favorite things to do at the locker was stirring this with my grandmother. The liquid part would be poured out into smaller portions, cooled, and sold as lard. The solid remains would be pressed, then sold as dog food. I remember Tommy Davenport and Audra Harter working there, as well as my uncle Howard (we called him Eddie) Maxwell. Chauncey had the horns of a Texas Longhorn steer mounted and hanging on the office wall which was located in the front window of the locker. They also had an old-fashioned manual typewriter there which was always fun for the grand children to play with and get the keys all locked together. |